The Chicago Symphony Orchestra family joins the music world in mourning the loss of Sir Peter Jonas, the legendary British arts administrator and opera company director, who died yesterday in Munich following a long illness. He was seventy-three. Jonas was personal assistant to Sir Georg Solti from 1974 until 1977, and he served as the first artistic administrator of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1978 until 1985.

“Peter Jonas led a Helden life,” commented Lady Valerie Solti from her home in London. “He was a very special, amazing, and highly talented man—very disciplined, very dedicated, highly intellectual, and quick witted—as was shown by his incredible career. Peter was a legend and a luminary in the world of international opera, and no one had a more thorough knowledge of the repertoire and who should be performing it. There was an extraordinary brilliance about him, as an administrator and as a human being, and despite his health challenges, Peter kept going, never complained, and never gave up.”

In October 1977, John Edwards, general manager of The Orchestral Association, announced that Jonas had been appointed artistic administrator for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, effective January 1, 1978. According to a press release, “The position for which there is precedent among a number of symphony organizations in the United States and Europe is a new one for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra . . . [and Jonas] will assist the general manager and music director in programming, selection of artists, and other details of the subscription and non-subscription concerts of the orchestra in Chicago [including] arrangements for recordings and TV and for future American and overseas tour programs.”

According to Martha Gilmer, who succeeded Jonas in Chicago, “Peter was, to use Berlioz’s words, a ‘firebrand.’ . . . Peter was my mentor and friend. His incredible programming vision, and his connection with the great artists all over the world enhanced the years that he was at the CSO, and of course continued with his leadership of the English National Opera and the Bavarian State Opera. His close relationship with Claudio Abbado resulted in amazing performances of Berg’s Wozzeck in a semi-staged version that I will never forget. He was responsible for bringing Carlos Kleiberto Chicago twice in amazing performances. In addition to symphonic repertoire, the Orchestra regularly performed concert opera including Solti’s performances of Verdi’s Falstaff, which also went to Carnegie Hall, and Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron.

“Peter battled cancer for all of his life. The first time I met him he shook my hand and in a characteristically Peter way said, ‘Nice to meet you, but I’m not going to be in this world for much longer.’ That was in 1977. I worked for him from 1979 until he left to run the English National Opera in 1985. He was a force of nature, loving the fight on behalf of the sustenance and the triumph of the arts. He embraced life and hiked Europe from North to South and East to West. His years in Chicago were pivotal to the Orchestra’s history, including his work with Daniel Barenboim (who would succeed Solti as music director), as well as Erich Leinsdorf, Klaus Tennstedt, and many others.” (Gilmer served the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association for thirty-five years, first as an intern in 1976 and ultimately as vice president of artistic planning and audience development. Currently, she is chief executive officer of the San Diego Symphony.)

“I know I’m speaking with Solti’s voice when I say that we were enormously proud and blessed to have known Peter and to have had his presence in our lives,” continued Lady Solti. “Another bright, brilliant light has gone out, but the memory of that light remains.”

Wishing Walfrid Kujala—a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s flute and piccolo section from 1954 until 2001—a very happy ninety-fifth birthday!

A native of Warren, Ohio, Kujala grew up in Clarksburg, West Virginia, where he started flute lessons when he was in the seventh grade. (His father, a bassoonist, steered him to the flute in order to “save him” from the headaches of reed making.) While attending high school in Huntington, West Virginia, he studied with Parker Taylor, principal flute of the Huntington Symphony Orchestra, and played second flute with the ensemble from 1939 until 1942.

Kujala attended the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Joseph Mariano, principal flute of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. His college career was interrupted by two and a half years of military service in the U.S. Army, serving in the 86th Infantry Division Band from 1943 until 1946. During his tour of duty in the Philippines, after the end of hostilities, Kujala was briefly a member of the Manila Symphony Orchestra. From Eastman, he received his bachelor of music degree in 1948 and a master’s degree in 1950, and he was a member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra under Erich Leinsdorf from 1948 until 1954. Kujala also served on Eastman’s faculty from 1950 until 1954.

In 1954, sixth music director Fritz Reiner hired Kujala as assistant principal flute of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and in 1957, he became principal piccolo, serving in that capacity until 2001. He also performed as principal flute of the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra from 1955 until 1960.

Kujala, Gunther Schuller, and Sir Georg Solti following the world premiere performance of Schuller’s Flute Concerto on October 13, 1988 (Jim Steere photo)

Kujala joined the faculty at Northwestern University in 1962 and taught there for fifty years, retiring in 2012. In honor of his sixtieth birthday, his students and colleagues commissioned a flute concerto from Gunther Schuller, and Kujala was soloist in the world premiere with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Solti on October 13, 1988. On August 19, 1990, he was soloist in the U.S. premiere of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Concerto for Flute under Kurt Redel, at the National Flute Association convention in Minneapolis. The Chicago Flute Club’s biennial international piccolo competition is named in his honor.

The author of the textbook The Flutist’s Progress, Kujala also regularly contributes articles and editorial to several publications, including The Instrumentalist, Flute Talk, Music Journal, and Woodwind World. He is a founding board member and founding secretary of the National Flute Association, where he also served as president, vice president, and board chairman. Kujala and his wife Sherry make their home in Evanston.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra family joins the classical music world in mourning the loss of Christopher Rouse. He died on September 21, 2019, at the age of seventy at a hospice center in Towson, Maryland.

Christopher Rouse (Getty photo)

Music by the Pulitzer Prize–winning composer has been performed by the Orchestra on numerous occasions, and a complete list is below.

May 17, 18, 19, and 22, 2001, Orchestra Hall
ROUSE Clarinet ConcertoLarry Combs, clarinet
Christoph Eschenbach, conductorThe Clarinet Concerto was commissioned by the Hanson Institute for American Music of the Eastman School of Music (University of Rochester) and for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and its principal clarinet, Larry Combs. The concerto was dedicated to Augusta Read Thomas, the Orchestra’s composer-in-residence from 1997 until 2006.

It is with great sadness that we share news of the passing of Norman Schweikert, a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s horn section from 1971 until 1997, who passed away at his home on Washington Island, Wisconsin on December 31, 2018, after a brief illness. He was 81.

A native of Los Angeles, Schweikert began piano lessons at the age of six, added violin soon after, and turned to the horn at age thirteen. His first horn teachers were Odolindo Perissi and Sinclair Lott, both members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. During high school, Schweikert won a scholarship to the Aspen Music Festival, where he studied with Joseph Eger. In 1955, he auditioned for Erich Leinsdorf, then music director of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and won his first professional post as fourth horn there. He was its youngest member and in succeeding years played second and third horn.

In June 1971—at the invitation of music director Georg Solti—Schweikert joined the Chicago Symphony as assistant principal horn, just in time for the Orchestra’s first tour to Europe. In 1975, he was named second horn, the position he held until his retirement in 1997 (he continued to play as a substitute or extra until June 2006). Schweikert appeared as a soloist with the Orchestra on a number of occasions, and in March 1977 he—along with colleagues Dale Clevenger, Richard Oldberg, and Thomas Howell—was soloist in the recording of Schumann’s Konzertstück for Four Horns under the baton of Daniel Barenboim for Deutsche Grammophon.

In 1970, Schweikert chaired the International Horn Society’s organizing committee and served as its first secretary and treasurer. He continued on the advisory council, contributed many articles to The Horn Call, and was elected an honorary member in 1996. From 1973 until 1998, Schweikert served as associate professor of horn on the faculty of Northwestern University.

In his retirement, Schweikert and his wife Sally—a thirty-year veteran of the Chicago Symphony Chorus—made their home on Washington Island in Wisconsin, where he performed with the Washington Island Music Festival. They were longtime members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Alumni Association, regularly attending annual reunions. Schweikert also continued his research into the lives of U.S. orchestra members, a project that he started while studying at Eastman, and his collection of material on the subject is likely the largest private collection of its kind in the world. In 2012, Schweikert’s book The Horns of Valhalla—the story of horn players Josef and Xaver Reiter—was published by WindSong Press Limited.

Schweikert is survived by Sally, his beloved wife of fifty-seven years; and their son Eric, principal timpani of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. Details for a memorial service are pending.

Wendell Hoss (1892–1980) joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s horn section in June 1917 for the Ravinia Park and subsequent downtown seasons, and he joined the U.S. Navy the following summer, serving at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station. After his year in the Navy, Hoss played in the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra before returning to Chicago for one season as principal horn in 1922–23. He later taught at the Eastman School of Music, performed in the Disney recording studios, and was a co-founder of the International Horn Society.

Otto, Edward, and Henri Hyna

Czechoslovakia native Otto Hyna (1886–1951) emigrated to the U.S. in 1904 and later served in the National Guard as a member of the First Wisconsin Regiment of Field Artillery in 1917. Following his military service, he was principal bass of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra from 1921 until 1923. Hyna joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s bass section in 1930, where he remained until 1950. Otto’s brothers Edward and Henri also were members of the Orchestra’s string section. Edward (1897–1958) served as a violinist from 1929 until 1943, and Henri (1901–1955) also was a violinist from 1928 until 1932.

For the final concert of the 1917–18 season, Frederick Stock opened the concert with America and closed with his Festival March and The Star-Spangled Banner. A new stage decoration recognized musicians serving the U.S. military. The article is here.

One of the goals of the Civic Orchestra was “to reduce the dependence of this country upon European sources of supply for trained orchestral musicians” as well as to function as a reserve of talent from which to draw into the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The article is here.

First Civic Orchestra Program, March 29, 1920

Five hundred young musicians auditioned in January 1920, eighty-six were accepted, and the first rehearsal was held in Orchestra Hall on January 27.

Stock and the Civic Orchestra in March 1920

The ensemble made its debut on March 29, 1920, and the roster included future Chicago Symphony Orchestra members (including John Weicher, who became concertmaster in 1937). Frederick Stock, Eric DeLamarter, and George Dasch (also a member of the Orchestra’s violin and viola sections from 1898 until 1923) shared conducting duties, leading works by Halvorsen’s Triumphal Entry of the Boyards, Godard’s Adagio pathétique, Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, Grieg’s Suite no. 1 from Peer Gynt, Keller’s Souvenir and Valse, and one of Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance marches.

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A Time for Reflection—A Message of Peace—a companion exhibit curated by the Rosenthal Archives of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in collaboration with the Pritzker Military Museum & Library—will be on display in Symphony Center’s first-floor rotunda from October 2 through November 18, and the content also will be presented on CSO Sounds & Stories and the From the Archives blog.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association offers a variety of internships in all departments, and we are always lucky to engage young, smart, and eager individuals—current students and recent graduates—from all disciplines. Working here can provide an in-depth look at not only the Orchestra’s rich history but also insight into the day-to-day operations of a performing arts organization. We recently reached out to former Rosenthal Archives interns to see what they have been up to . . .

Stephen Abitbol

A digital cinema graduate from DePaul University, Stephen Abitbol processed audio and video recording collections in the archives. “It was incredible to see how much dedication, love, and patience it takes from each musician to work as a whole to create a unique sound. It helped me understand how important it is to work as a team in my personal and professional relationships to grow together.” Stephen currently lives in Haifa, Israel, working as a digital marketer in a variety of startups. This fall, he is a full-time student there in language school to learn Hebrew.

Kathryn Antonelli

After her recent tenure in the archives, Kathryn Antonelli completed internships at Princeton University and the University of Hawaii, working with born-digital and moving-image collections. “Working at the CSO was what opened the doors to these amazing new experiences, and I am so glad I had the opportunity to spend a season there.” She will soon graduate from the University of South Carolina with her master of library and information science degree (MLIS) and plans to reside and work in Philadelphia.

Sierra Campbell

Sierra Campbell completed degrees in fine arts from Harold Washington College and English literature from the University of Illinois at Chicago before earning an MLIS degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “Working at the CSO impacted both my personal and professional paths, as I was able to meet the friendly employees and volunteers. They were all so gracious and willing to help out in any way, and no act of recognition was too small to have been noticed.” Sierra currently works at Fox College, managing libraries on two campuses.

Kerry Fulara

Kerry Fulara earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Michigan State University and an MLIS (with a specialization in archives, preservation, and records management) degree from the University of Pittsburgh. Following her internship, she worked with Rush Hour Concerts and formally established its archives. “My time at the CSO taught me the importance and benefits of networking, connecting with people, and building relationships.” Kerry later worked as a records manager and now as a real estate analyst with Invenergy. Continuing her archival work, she currently volunteers with the Richard H. Driehaus Museum, developing its restoration archive.

John Garvens (Sarah Pemberton photo)

Since working in the archives, John Garvens has transitioned from music to retail to fitness to software to advertising to consulting while serving in the U.S. Army Reserve as a trombone player from 2004 until 2016. He especially remembers two visitors to the archives, Yo-Yo Ma and Pierre Boulez. “Both men were musical heroes of mine; it was an honor to meet them. It also was really cool to archive the media from Riccardo Muti’s earliest years with the CSO.” John earned a bachelor of music degree in trombone performance from Illinois State University.

Matthew Greenman (reverb.com photo)

Matthew Greenman completed a bachelor of music degree in performing arts management from DePaul University in 2016 before his CSO internships in the archives and the marketing department. “My time in the archives greatly enhanced my organizational skills, formed my fascination of and appreciation for the orchestra, and rekindled my love of live music.” Matthew later worked as a listings coordinator at reverb.com in Lakeview, and he is preparing to take the exam to join the New York City Fire Department.

Andrew Lyon (E. Lyon photo)

After earning his bachelor’s degree in saxophone performance from Illinois State University, Andrew Lyon joined the staff, processing and cataloguing the Margaret Hillis score collection. He later completed a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from Butler University and has since returned to the archives on numerous occasions to utilize the score and audio collections. In the archives, “once you’re a part of it, you’re a part for life. You have your own page in the CSO history books.” Andrew currently is artistic and music director of The 65th Street Klezmorim and on faculty at Ivy Tech Community College.

Shridar Mani completed a bachelor’s degree in music (with honors) from the University of Chicago while an intern in the archives, where one of his projects was processing and cataloguing a collection of manuscripts by Chicago composer William Lester (see here and here). After graduation, he returned home to Singapore where he has worked for the past several years as a programming officer at the Esplanade–Theatres on the Bay, producing a wide variety of concerts in all genres. “Working at the CSO helped me realize that working in the arts was a calling, and it has led to my career for the past six years and many more to come.”

Charles Russell Roberts (Mike Grittani photo)

With degrees from the University of Florida and the Eastman School of Music, Charles Russell Roberts currently is finishing a master’s degree in performing arts administration at Roosevelt University. “The archives internship was my first foray into working at a cultural institution in a capacity beyond the stage, and it gave me a deep understanding and respect for the integrity and preservation of not only physical archives but also the importance of records and data in understanding how an organization changes over time.” Charles—also an alumnus of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago—currently balances a full-time job as a project manager with Grenzebach Glier and Associates with performances with the Gaudete Brass Quintet.

Andrew Song

Before completing a bachelor of arts degree in biological sciences from the University of Chicago, Andrew Song worked at the CSO as an archives intern and patron services associate. “I gained strong insight into how a large organization can foster meaningful long-term relationships with its patrons as well as nurture its community through education and outreach . . . I also realized, for the first time, the greater institutional sense of community oriented self-efficacy: a pride that I was part of a great organization that made such fantastic concerts possible for the sake of our audience members.” Andrew currently is a student at Harvard Medical School.

Gregory Starr

“Working with the archives really strengthened my attention to detail,” remembers Gregory Starr, whose internship helped fulfill a class requirement for his bachelor’s degree in music business from Western Illinois University. Once after assisting with an exhibit, he mentioned that he “enjoyed getting to see more of our own collection and getting to show it off to others.” He continued to volunteer with the CSO as he worked toward a degree in digital forensics and network security at Elgin Community College, and he recently took a position as a technology support specialist—concentrating on networking troubleshooting and architecture—at The Packaging Wholesalers.

Jack Vishneski

Jack Vishneski studied history (with minors in ethnomusicology and music) at Beloit College and was working as a freelance audio engineer and singer when he began his internship in the archives, where he learned about “the value of cultivating institutional memory, especially as a key component of the storytelling needed to (at minimum) survive and (one hopes) thrive in the non-profit arts sector.” Jack completed a master’s degree in musicology from the University of Minnesota, and he and his wife are expecting their first child in November.

Joe White

Following his internship in the archives, Joe White earned a master’s degree in composition from the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College and has been active in the New York music and theater scene ever since. “Working at CSO right after undergrad was very affirming on many levels, as it provided confirmation that I wanted to seek out, and participate in, artistic communities. I learned that there was a place for me professionally and personally in my post-academic life.” His most recent work is the score to Alex Borinsky’s Clubbed Thumb play Of Government.

Cassandra Wilson

Cassandra Wilson completed her MLIS from Dominican University before starting her internship in the archives. “The CSO was the most amazing place to intern because I could marry my love of music with history and archives. It is also very hard to describe what it feels like to be going about your day with the life mask of Beethoven sitting on your work surface and watching over your every move!” Now residing in Houston, she freelances as a webmaster and researcher, and she currently is assisting a new company with planning and implementing its corporate archives. Cassandra also is personal assistant to her sister—opera singer and recent Richard Tucker Music Foundation award recipient—Tamara Wilson.